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City Begins Wi-Fi Pilot Program in 10 Phone Booths

A newly activated Wi-Fi hot spot at a pay phone near Columbus Circle in Manhattan on Wednesday.Credit New York City Office of Information Technology and Telecommunications

Time was, Clark Kent would hop into a phone booth and emerge dressed as a powerful being from outer space.

Starting on Wednesday, you can hop into a New York City phone booth and emerge with a powerful wireless connection for your smartphone.

Hey, it’s a start.

The city has converted 10 public pay phones in three boroughs – Manhattan, Brooklyn and Queens – into free Wi-Fi hot spots, infusing a blast of modern technology into some of the city’s most notably outdated infrastructure. The project is considered a way to explore the feasibility of a citywide Wi-Fi network, and a chance for the city to consider what it can do with the thousands of pay phones that remain active.
“As we begin assessing the future of the pay phone in New York City, this pilot should help us gauge public interest in some of the amenities the next generation of devices might offer,” said Rahul N. Merchant, commissioner of the city’s Department of Information Technology and Telecommunications.

The Wi-Fi signal, which works with all the usual laptops, smartphones and tablet devices, will extend 100 feet to 200 feet from each pay phone. The city said there would be no limits on usage or bandwidth and there will be no charge to connect to the signal.

For those in a nostalgic mood, the pay phones themselves will remain active for old-fashioned phone calls.

The city said that it would monitor use of the pay-phone pilot program as it gauges whether to continue or expand it. Free Wi-Fi is already available in the city’s library branches and several dozen parks. “One of the most frequent requests from New Yorkers is for more public Wi-Fi in public spaces,” said Rachel Sterne, the city’s chief digital officer.

The city said 12,360 pay phones still exist on the city’s sidewalks. (Only a few of them are still housed in a phone booth.) The maintenance and operation of the phones have been franchised out to 13 companies, but those contracts are set to expire in October 2014, raising questions about the long-term fate of the phones. On Wednesday, the city issued a formal solicitation to companies and individuals to suggest potential uses of the phones in the future.

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